I don't understand why so many people are raving about air fryers!

[BorisJohnsonsHair]

So many people I know have them, and keep trying to tell me how marvellous they are.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't actually see what I would cook in one. We eat a lot of curries, stir-fries and then things like sausage and mash, lasagne etc.

I have a combination microwave/grill/oven, plus a normal oven and gas hob. Also use a slow cooker. Why would I need to add another gadget? I honestly can't see when I'd use it.

And please don't say chips are as good as proper chips! We only have chips maybe once every couple of months, so like them deep-fried.

An air frier is really just a table top fan oven though. You already have a table top oven.

No one is using the oven and finishing off in the air frier though are they? They are using it instead of the big oven.

pizza is the only thing I've used my oven for since I got the air frier in the summer and there are 4 adults here. We don't eat pizza every week though.

DSs use it to reheat left over pizza though (they deliberately order large so there is left over for lunch/breakfast the next day!)

I don't have a microwave, so ours gets used a lot especially for warming up individual meals. It's amazing for warming croissants etc - not soggifying them like a microwave does. It's basically a mini oven, the word fry is a bit misleading I think, but we do use it a lot, every day at some point, and hardly ever use the main oven so there must be a fair bit of energy saving there too. Not so great for large families, I expect, but if you have teenagers etc that snack from the freezer at odd times then it's great.

I'm always amused by the sniffy "beige" food comments. Like any appliance, it's how you use it. We definitely do some beige food - nuggets/fish fingers and chips which is great because 30 minutes in the oven for a small portion for DD was infuriating. 12 minutes in air fryer and it's done.

But mostly, I use it for small amounts of food that I don't want to turn the oven on for because it's a waste and/or it takes too long. Lunch/breakfast a lot but also main meals where there's one person eating something different or we're eating at different times because of activities.

Eg I'll prep salmon and then cook mine before taking DD to bed, DH will cook his and DS when he comes in from DS' activity. Similarly for convenience food that we sometimes eats on nights like these but where either the fish cake/chicken kiev etc would be cooked hours before someone ate it OR the oven would go on 2 or 3 times. AND would take 24-30 minutes. Now as we come through the door, chicken kiev in the air fryer and bang, 12 minutes later it can be eaten alongside whatever microwave veg/rice have been prepared earlier.

DH loves ours! I can't stand it! I find it a waste of space on the counter, and don't find it actually cooks things any better or faster than the oven!

Just on the air fryer for 8-9 mins at 180.

Haven’t got the measurements to hand, but at a guess I’d say it’s not much wider than a microwave though it’s probably taller. I’ve never owned a microwave, so wasn’t fussed about the AF taking up space on the worktop. Plus I’ve located it on the small part of worktop to the side of my corner oven - it never really got used for anything.

Ive got the larger 2 drawer model (9 litre capacity). There’s a smaller version (7.5 litre).

I'm glad to find some other sceptics here!

I have no plans to get one. As far as I can see, in order to do large pyrex trays of lasagne etc I'd need a larger one and I can't justify the £££s or the workspace. We use the oven to roast vegetables (eg. before putting in cous cous, or sauces, or soup, or just to eat like that), to make casseroles or lasagnes or pasta bakes, bake cakes, occasionally to do a smallish joint or a large chicken, but yes also to crisp things up, to do crumb-coated chicken or fish from frozen for DC, the odd pizza. So obviously I feel guilty about that. But spending £250+ on a large enough air frier to accommodate what I want, plus taking up the counter space AND giving autistic DS something else to fiddle with and screw up - nope.

I like using the oven. I like being able to open it and stir, season, add things. It's expensive, we'll have to be careful and watch our usage. I'm yet to be convinced that buying a new fad gadget is going to make me anything but frustrated and cross.

I like using the oven too, I like using pots and pans and looking at my food as it cooks ,
But what I’m mostly concerned about is That all air fryers are made of plastic, Won’t the constant high heat cause harmful chemical to leach onto your food? Specially with the cheaper ones.

I like being able to open it and stir, season, add things

which you can do with an air frier.

obviously it isn't going to be something that works for everyone but you can do everything you would in a larger oven.

All the hot bits are metal though. Well, they are on mine. I'm not sure how anything from the outer casing is going to leach into my food.

Mine isn't plastic. It has a plastic casing, possibly - i haven't looked too closely. But mostly it's metal with, I think, some silicon? Not sure. Definitely not plastic. Because, you know, it gets very very hot. So not a good option for plastic.

@SoupDragon I have moved to baking a big batch of doughnuts in the oven until literally just baked. I freeze most of them and just oil and air fry what we want to eat then and there to crispen the outsides. The smaller capacity of an air fryer does mean that sometimes it is actually faster to do in the oven and finish off in the air fryer.

Just to be clear, I am not 'getting sniffy' about beige food or anything else. I just don't particularly eat it much. I make no judgement about it either way. I am certainly not precious about what food I eat. I just don't particularly like stuff from the freezer that you bung in the oven.

When I have asked friends who have air fryers what they cook in theirs, that is the type of stuff suggested.

Having read this thread, it seems there are lots of options. I am still a little unsure how you do some things e.g. saute veg as the base for sauces. I know some air fryers are multi functional so you can do that first then switch the settings buy I don't think all do that as standard?? (Happy to be corrected) To be fair, I have a similar issue with a slow cooker and seem to end up browning meat and onions first which gets on my nerves and defeats the object.

How much use its going to be probably depends on what you like to eat. I was thinking about a slow cooker but realised we'd only use it for bulk cooking chilli and spag bol and its not worth it. I can use a haybox/wonderbag for that.
I still saute stuff on the hob. with some things (like a chicken) I do the main cook in the microwave and brown it off in the air fryer

@queenofarles Mine is a big glass bowl. Its much easier for me to see when a cake has risen and set than the oven. It has an extension ring but we haven't had to use that yet.

And yet, the pressure is still on to get one, no matter the kitchen size. It is a gadget that does not seem worth the space in smaller kitchens because it means less space for other things. I can do a roast chicken in a tabletop oven. I can do cookies. I have done a small turkey in a tabletop oven, without the need for preheating. Air fryer does not seem as versatile in a small space. (Mine also does rotisserie chicken.) At that point, table top toaster oven seems like it would make more sense.

But that is a different argument versus a standard convection oven. :)

@whataplanker I think the veg for stir fry thing is weird myself. Why not just do it on the stove? But roasted veg.... I am there for that in my air fryer 100% (not butternut - was bland and awful).

I really do think that any gadget is only worth it if it works for your lifestyle. Eg I use my slow cooker sometimes but purely for the convenience - I can make relatively cheap meals in it on days I can't be keeping an eye on the stove or oven - eg over lunch while wfh I do the prep then an afternoon of meetings without worrying about burning the house down.

Same with air fryer. I often have small amounts of food for the oven and the air fryer solves that for me - quick and easy. I can't see how it would work for me if I routinely cooked large amounts of food in the oven and I have no desire to use it for food I can cook quickly and easily on the hob.

Where are you feeling pressure from? Just because something is popular doesn't mean everyone has to get one. Maybe people are raving about them because they genuinely like it but that doesn't mean that you will. I'm sure we can all make our own purchasing decisions.

And yet, the pressure is still on to get one

Who on earth is pressuring you to get a kitchen appliance. Unless it's your husband/partner in which case they should have an equal say rather than need to pressure then I doubt anyone cares enough to try and push you to get one

I have nothing against them, but seeing as my rice maker, juicer, bread maker and veg steamer are all gathering dust in a cupboard, I won’t be buying one! 😆

I'm not a cooking kind of woman so I'm not the target audience and I don't get it either. I can see them becoming the bread maker of our time.

It's just more shit to clean for me and I hate too much stuff.

So, beige food? This is what I made today. Not the prettiest I’ll grant you, but not beige.

I'll be honest, it's looks delicious, all those veg mmmmm.

I made steamed fish in mine today. I put some water in the bottom of the draw, a piece of cod on the shelf and cooked for about 7 minutes. It was delicious. And did not stink the house out!